Credible Alibi

by Tyler Anne Snell

  Madi walked out of her room holding fuzzy pink handcuffs, just as the new arrival made it out onto the landing. Like the unconscious man, this one also wore a nice shirt and slacks, as if he’d simply taken a wrong turn at a business convention and just so happened to find himself in a closed inn. Unlike the man Julian had fought before, this one didn’t have a knife.

  He had a gun.

  * * *

  SCREAMING WAS POINTLESS, and yet Madi did it anyway.

  The man at the stairs didn’t seem put off by the sound. In fact, he was smiling. Between that and the pistol in his hand, Madi felt like she had woken in a worse nightmare than before.

  “Well, I can’t say I’ve ever been greeted by that before.” The man motioned to the handcuffs. “But I’m always up for new experiences.”

  Madi’s blood ran cold. This time she couldn’t play it cool. She couldn’t keep eye contact, hoping to give Julian the element of surprise. This time she couldn’t help but look for the dark-eyed man who had been her savior.

  And there he was.

  Standing in the doorway of the guest suite, staring right back at her.

  “Madi, run!”

  The man on the stairs followed her gaze just as Julian yelled. He cursed and turned his aim. Madi instantly thawed. A feeling of such possessive power overcame her, like it had with the lamp. With a wild war cry she threw the second thing that night.

  The pink fuzzy handcuffs flew through the air. They hit the man’s head, much like Julian’s cell phone had. This one, however, was faster on the uptake. He managed to get a shot off before he stumbled.

  Madi’s heart almost stopped. Fear replaced any and all bravado she’d had. Julian had disappeared from view. Had he been hit?

  “What the—”

  The man moved around the half wall to get the same answer. Julian was polite enough to oblige.

  He rammed into the intruder like a defensive back. The man shot again but the bullet whizzed over Julian and embedded itself into the doorjamb. This time Madi listened to Julian’s original order.

  She turned on her heel and retreated into her living space, holding her stomach as she went. She had been taught to stay and fight, but with her daughter along for the ride? Those stakes were too high.

  Madi hurried around the room, searching it like she’d never once stepped foot inside. Adrenaline was making her movements jerky, her mind sluggish. She wanted to help but for the life of her couldn’t think past the fuzzy pink handcuffs.

  And she’d just thrown those.

  A man groaned so loud Madi froze on spot. Another gunshot rang through her inn. Footsteps thundered across the hardwood. She clutched her stomach but it was Julian who ran into view.

  “Bedroom,” he yelled out, breathing labored.

  Madi listened as Julian threw the door shut and locked it. He did the same in the bedroom the second he was through the door. Then he yanked over her dresser. It crashed to the floor and blocked most of the door.

  “Any guns in here?” he asked, pulling her toward the window.

  “No! The cops took my handgun!”

  Julian cursed.

  “We need to get out of here,” he said, changing tactics. He nodded to the window. Madi understood. She just didn’t like it. A crash vibrated through the floor. Madi unlocked the window and started to slide it up.

  “There’s nowhere to go, you hicks,” the man yelled. The door handle shook. Then the door quaked. Next came a bullet. The mirror over the bed shattered but it did nothing to slow Julian’s pace. He had Madi up and out of the window before half of the glass could even hit the floor. When he was at her side, he lowered his voice. It by no means undercut the severity of their situation. He grabbed her hand.

  “I need you to guide us out of here, Madi.”

  They might have been standing on a roof at night, chased by a man with a gun, but feeling Julian’s hand was like taking a deep, steadying breath.

  She nodded.

  “Let’s go!”

  Chapter Eleven

  The roof was mostly flat outside Madi’s bedroom and bathroom. It hung over the downstairs lounge before dropping off at the back patio. They could have run to the edge and jumped down right next to the back door but all she could think about was the drop. And how the gunman would have an easy sight line to their backs.

  So she cut left and hurried along the second story until the flat roof ended and the one that pitched high over the kitchen rose above them.

  “We could jump off here or climb over,” Madi explained, already slightly out of breath. “There’s another small overhang on the other side that has that big wooden trellis attached. I—I don’t know if it can hold our weight, though. Just like I don’t know if I can make the jump here.”

  The night sky was clear above them. It was the only reason the moon was giving off enough light that Madi could just make out Julian’s expression. He was looking between her two options and, no doubt, playing through both scenarios in his head. Neither was ideal.

  A gunshot tore through the quiet. Glass shattered. Madi squeezed Julian’s hand like her life depended on it.

  “Do you think you can climb this?”

  “I’ve done it before, just not while I was pregnant,” she admitted. “And not at night.”

  Clear as the day it wasn’t. Julian’s face hardened into worry. Their pursuer’s voice, yelling something Madi couldn’t make out, seemed to tip the scale of which option was more worth the risk. Julian let go of her hand and motioned to the field of shingles to their left.

  “Ladies first.”

  Madi was proud of herself for several reasons as she placed her hands out and walk-climbed up the pitched roof. For one, after her shower she’d dressed in comfortable clothes instead of her pajamas, fully expecting to help the boys after she was rested. That meant she was rocking her most flexible pair of yoga pants and a loose blouse that didn’t complain as she moved at the weird angle. She’d also fallen asleep with her tennis shoes on. Now they were a godsend, gripping the shingles with a proficiency her body naturally lacked thanks to the sheer awkwardness of almost being in her third trimester.

  She was also pleased that despite the danger, her nerves had gone weirdly calm. She focused on her hand and foot placement. Focused on the sound of Julian’s breathing and movement behind her.

  They needed to get as far away from the man as they could.

  The ridge above the kitchen wasn’t the highest point of the inn but it was tall enough to be of concern. With extreme caution, Madi and Julian crept to the other side, where they needed to climb down to where the roof flattened and ended with the overhang. Madi had half a mind to suggest they just hide on the roof.

  Maybe their mystery man would think navigating a roof at night would be way too stupid for a pregnant woman and injured man to attempt. Maybe he’d think they had jumped and were currently fleeing.

  Maybe—

  Another shot rang out somewhere over their heads. It caught Madi so off guard she fell on her side in the middle of trying to take it slow down the side of the peak. Julian scrambled after her, grabbing at her shirt. He caught a handful of the fabric but couldn’t stop the two of them from sliding down. Her on her side, Julian on his stomach. A scream caught in Madi’s throat, fearing the worst as they skidded downward, when her feet stopped on flat ground. They’d made it to the overhang.

  Julian cursed something awful as he let her go and caught the roof with his hands. Together they fumbled into easier positions. Then Julian was pulling her up and hurrying to the edge.

  “We have to hurry.”

  Madi couldn’t agree more.

  She followed him to the edge and tried really hard not to think about their combined weights. The trellis was made of sturdy wood entwined with vines. It covered the entire left side of the kitchen wall from the ground to a few inche
s above the roofline. Madi turned around and accepted Julian’s help in getting her first foothold.

  She tried thinking light thoughts as her shoe slid into the second one. Then her hand into another.

  For a moment they both waited for the terrifying crack of their only lifeline breaking.

  Thankfully, and much to their surprise, it never happened.

  “Hurry,” Madi exclaimed.

  Julian did as he was told.

  Together, they awkwardly climbed down. Madi did so with less speed and much less grace. Her stomach was too big. Every movement she had to angle away from the makeshift ladder. She missed the last few gaps altogether because of it. She let out a small scream. Two strong hands caught her back and side before any damage could be done.

  Then it was just the two of them on the ground.

  Julian’s head swiveled. Madi didn’t have the patience. She started to run around the corner of the house but those strong hands held her firm.

  “We don’t know if there’s more of them,” he whispered, pulling her closer to his chest. “The house isn’t safe for you.”

  Madi didn’t like how he put emphasis on for you.

  “Well, you’re not going in there, either, then,” she said, trying to stay as quiet. “If it’s not safe for me then it’s not safe for you.” Every time she thought they had a moment of safety, something would burst that bubble. Now being on the ground was no exception. A man’s voice let out a string of expletives somewhere across the roofline.

  Julian took that as a reason to get moving. He pulled her along with him around the back of the house. A scuffle sounded on the roof near where they had been, proving his move to be a good one. Whoever their pursuer was, he was nothing if not determined.

  A truly terrifying trait given the context.

  They crept along the side of the inn, keeping close to the house until the back patio was only a few feet away. Madi didn’t need lamplight to see the blood glistening on both of Julian’s sides. Nor the limp he’d adopted since their run across the roof.

  Madi had fallen in love with Hidden Hills’ off-the-beaten-path location, but at the moment, it felt like a point in the bad guys’ column. How could they go up against a gun when Julian didn’t even have shoes?

  It wasn’t a fair fight.

  Madi fumbled for Julian’s hand. She squeezed it as a thought zipped her spine straight.

  What if they didn’t need to fight at all?

  “I know the forest like the back of my hand,” Madi said with no segue. She looked over to the stone path that she’d walked less than two days ago with the guests and Jenna. “Get us to the tree line at the end of that path and I can make us disappear.”

  * * *

  JULIAN STAYED AT Madi’s back like the shield he was prepared to become if the gunman saw them make a break for the trees. She stumbled once but then, together, they fell into a groove.

  They became a unit.

  One that wasn’t spotted.

  Julian felt relief uncoil inside him less than a step inside the forest. He wanted to keep moving but Madi decreased her pace to an almost crawl.

  “I—I need to slow down,” she panted, hand rubbing her stomach. “It’s not good to—to push myself unless I have to.”

  Julian fought the urge to run back to the inn, find their mystery man and beat him to a pulp. How dare he or anyone threaten the well-being of his child? How dare they put Madi in this position?

  Julian couldn’t stop his anger from rolling into even angrier words. Madi patted his hand, meeting his eyes with a small smile.

  “I’m okay,” she whispered. “Just not used to all of this exertion. Usually getting out of the recliner is a chore.”

  He nodded that he understood and let her lead.

  During his earlier stay at Hidden Hills, Madi and he had explored several of the nearby trails, but the more they walked, the farther off those trails Madi took them. Julian marveled that the woman could even see where she was going, let alone guide them to a strategic location. Yet he wasn’t about to doubt her sure-footed movements. Not when most of his attention was behind them.

  The two men had surprised him well enough. Julian wasn’t about to give a third the satisfaction.

  Madi slowed as the ground started to slope downward. The trees thinned out. Julian’s eyes made the adjustment for the change in the light. At least here he could see farther than a foot in front of him. The sound of running water became more pronounced until finally Madi stopped.

  “Do you think he’s following us?” Her question was so soft. Vulnerable. In the new light Julian could see her exhaustion in more detail. Her shoulders sagged; her back hunched slightly. Her lips were thinned and pulled down in a frown that was equal parts thought and worry.

  “He may be trying,” Julian said, “but I don’t think he realized we ran off into the woods in the first place. And if he did, I don’t think even I could have tracked us here. You did one hell of a job of getting us lost.”

  That frown rocked up into the smallest of smiles.

  “The perk of growing up in a smaller than small town.” She motioned behind her. “There’s not much to do other than explore.”

  The water belonged to a small creek. They walked to its edge. Julian dipped his foot in. It was cold.

  “If we follow this it will either take us to my closest neighbor—” she pointed to the west and then pointed to the east “—or the county road, where we may or may not be able to flag someone down.”

  “And how far are we talking to each location?”

  Madi bit her lip. Julian pretended it didn’t distract him just a bit.

  “I’d say to the Jansens’ place it’s...maybe two miles? The county road maybe a bit less than that but the trek there is a little rockier than here.”

  Julian pulled his hand away from the bigger of the two wounds on his side and surveyed the cut, trying to think strategically about which direction to go. The bleeding had slowed. He made sure to keep his wince internal. Madi’s eyes were already wide enough as she took in the wound.

  “Here, try this.” Madi grabbed the bottom of her shirt. She tore it but instead of it going along the bottom, it ripped up over her stomach. “Well, crap. I was trying to be cool. They always make it look so easy in movies.” Julian chuckled. Madi moved closer. “Go ahead and tear off a piece if you can. The shirt’s already ruined.”

  He did as he was told, grabbing one side and making a smaller, more precise tear. His knuckles brushed against the skin of her stomach in the process. She tensed. Julian took the piece of cloth and pressed it to his cut. He didn’t move away. Neither did Madi.

  Slowly she angled her chin up, meeting his eye.

  “After I found out I was pregnant, a part of me didn’t want you to answer when I called.” Her voice was soft, low. “After what happened when I was a kid... Well, the unknown can be insanely terrifying for me. I was worried that if you answered and I told you, you wouldn’t want to have anything to do with us, with me. But truthfully, I think I was more afraid that you would.” She put her hand on his bare chest. The warmth in that touch reached every part of him. “No matter what happens later, I have to tell you—right now—I’m really glad you’re here.”

  Madi pushed up on her tiptoes.

  Her lips were soft. Oh so soft.

  He could have stayed against them forever.

  But then she ended the kiss as quickly as it had started.

  She took a step back, giving him space, and let her hand fall from his chest.

  Julian knew that now wasn’t the time to talk about what they meant to each other, what priorities the child between them would shift and change, and how their choices would affect their futures. He knew their current focus should be on getting out of the woods and away from the men who were after Madi. He couldn’t afford being distracted. Not
when Madi’s and their daughter’s lives were on the line. Yet looking at her staring back at him expectantly, lips as beautiful as the rest of her, Julian almost caved.

  Almost.

  “I think our best bet would be to go to the neighbors’,” he said after clearing his throat. “They should at least have a phone or car we could use.”

  It might have been a trick of the light but Julian thought he saw a brief look of hurt pass across Madi’s face. One second it was there; the next she was nodding.

  “I’m right behind you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Two miles might as well have been ten. Madi’s swollen ankles and general exhaustion sank in twenty minutes into their trek following the creek.

  “I need to rest,” she finally admitted. “And I need to do it now.”

  Julian didn’t complain. He hovered around her with concern, his movements quick and rigid. Together they eased her to the ground between two trees while she tried not to focus on the pain radiating up her legs.

  “These tennis shoes were made for walking but the pregnant belly, lack of sleep and ravenous hunger were not.”

  She tried her darnedest to give him a reassuring smile. It must have fallen flat instead. He crouched down next to her, hand already trying to steady her as she readjusted to get comfortable. Or at least to get to some semblance of it.

  “I just need to rest,” she said. “That’s it.”

  “You need to not be in these woods in the first place,” he growled back.

  Madi put her hand over his. Julian’s anger was touching.

  “I won’t argue with you there. I’d much rather be back in bed. Blissfully asleep until my bladder punched me awake.” She sighed. “Which, if I were more hydrated, would be an issue.” As it was, Madi was more concerned with keeping off her feet. Their jaunt through the woods hadn’t been so daunting until the adrenaline had fully worn off. Thankfully that meant the mystery men weren’t with them. In fact, Madi was positive they hadn’t followed. The sounds that had filled the world around them for the last twenty minutes or so had belonged to insects, the wind and animals that were between curiosity and sleep.